Today’s video is not for everyone, and I get that…
Some folks love this type of sound, some folks down, and either way is okay. I’m not saying you have to learn this and make it part of your everyday playing (unless you love it like I do,) but you should be aware of it.
It’s commonly used by more “jazzy” or “modern” sounding blues players like Robben Ford, Larry Carlton, Matt Schofield, and probably a few others I can’t think of off the top of my head.
But it’s actually a really easy shape to play and it’s pretty easy to use (if you know where you are in the 12 bar blues form…)
Downloads – WMV | MP4 | TAB in PDF
37 replies to "The Half-Whole Diminished Sound"
Great explanation on what the half-whole scale is and where to use it. Robben Ford and Matt Schofield make excellent use of this scale to provide tension and color at the transition from the 1 chord to the 4 chord. Thank you Griff
I hear Al Di Meola in that scale, especially when you plan quickly! Makes sense he would would milk the diminished scale. It makes a modal change for an instant. Thanks Griff.
Oh dear, as soon as I saw my comment posted I notices a couple of mistakes.
First sentence should say “IS that” not IT that.
And I left out the final step of the scale, which is
Up two frets to A (from G or Abb).
Sorry.
ChrisG.
Spoiler alert – this is a fairly long comment.
One thing that most people don’t realise, and many teachers don’t point out, it that the Diminished scale has EIGHT notes (count ’em – half, whole, half, whole, half, whole, half, whole). Griff has a whole lesson on using sharps and flats to spell scales, and one rule is IF YOU HAVE TO USE THE SAME LETTER TWICE, YOU’VE GOT IT WRONG.
Except for the Diminished scale – eight notes, seven letters, does not compute!
I’ll use the A Diminished scale to elaborate, because using C leads to far too many horrible double-flats.
Starting on A; up one fret is A# but you can’t use A again so call it Bb.
Up two frets to C.
Up one fret to C# but you can’t use it again so call it Db.
Up two frets to Eb.
Up one fret to E but you can’t use it again so call it Fb (nasty but true).
Up two frets to Gb.
And here is the nasty anomoly –
Up one fret to G but you can’t use it again so call it Abb (that’s A double-flat). But strictly speaking you can’t use that either because you started on A.
And that’s the crazy thing about the Diminished scale – you can’t spell it out without using one letter twice; That’s true whether you use the half tone-whole tone version or the whole tone-half tone version (the same scale but I’ve heard people claim that they are different).
Get it? Good.
Great lesson Griff.
Cheers from Australia,
ChrisG.
Tommy Tedesco put it best – ‘Doesn’t matter what you play, it’s where you stop that counts!’ Resolve to what the listener expects to hear and you’re home free.
Tommy Tedesco put it best – ‘Don’t make any difference what you play, it’s where you stop that counts!’ It’s the last note that people hear, resolve to what the listener expects and you’re home free.
Love the sound! I’ll be practicing that scale tonight. I’m hearing Steely Dan in there too. Need to review and see where it shows up.
Wow. I have been trying to get into diminished scales for a while. Robben plays them so well but too fast for me to work it out. Now I have a starting point. Thanks so much, Griff.
Oboy, Griff!
I can feel it coming! JAZZ GUITAR UNLEASHED! Nice work on this one! Love those flying fingers.
I love that diminished sound and have been trying to incorporate that into my playing for some time. Love Robben Ford. Right on Griff!
I’d have preferred it to have sounded, explanationwise, a little less complicated but, I persevered. If I ignore the stuff that sounds complicated and just listen to the sounds you make, it’s great! I’ll just have to call it Griff’s simple scale and I’ll be fine. Griff….thanks…..you’re doing great work for all sorts of guitar playists.
Very cool Griff! Gotta try this out. Thanks!
10/17/18
Fascinating scale, Griff. I loved how you pegged the exact place to throw it in, where it sits, & resolving to beat 1 of the IV perfectly. Thank you for your ongoing drive to teach alternate ways to play & think. Cheers from south OC, Neighbor!
Griff , this is a really great lesson .I grew up on jazz , so this will be helpful applying it to the guitar . Should be a lot of fun . Thanks Griff . Mike Z.
Hey Griff,
Very Cool lesson. I have saved it for later..
Michael-Sydney-Australia-15 Oct 2016
Thanks for sharing this cool lesson on diminished scales Griff! I love this sound and have noodled around with it, though I didn’t really have the scale down until I watched your video. I also didn’t know you could move it up 3 frets and get the same scale, but that made sense when I remembered that the same thing can be done wth diminished chords. This scale kind of reminds me of the harmonic minor, because of the half step intervals. I’m definitely going to start to play around with it and try to incorporate into my improvising. Cheers!
Interesting lesson Griff, thanks.
Really this is new to me . I have not tried Diminish sound so far Thanks Griff for this lesson . I will try and learn .
Hey Griff,
Want to say thanks for your ability to teach! It’s my opinion, but I think you are probably the best I’ve seen. Have a question for you. Which style of guitar do you find is the best for the blues? I’ve heard that the semi-hollow is best. Is that your opinion as well?
Thanks Griff. Any expansion of my k owl edge is appreciated. I have some of your courses. Do you ever evaluate students playing online? I’m 65, and love playing improv lead fills to blues. Thanks for your help.
Hi griff i have been trying dim scales and struggling a bit ..but this helps alot thanks
Good stuff Griff, but I’m lookin’ for a simple little lesson (intro) on Hi Heel Sneakers by Tommy Tucker. Jerry Garcia does a really smooth version.
Please help an old man out!
Thanks for everything you do to help those of us who play guitar – play better!
Old School and Still Rockin’
Thanks Griff !
This is a sound a really like and use it all the time but hadn’t ever looked at it this way, that is to say, with the pattern you demonstrate in this video.
i KINDA DIG THE ROBBEN FORD SOUND I WILL SURLY TRY IT OUT . MAYBE IT IS THE SOUND I BEEN LOOKING FOR .
Theres that “J” word again! Scares the heck out of me! And as soon as you mentioned “other scales” it was shut down time! I still haven’t even got the 5 boxes down! Cool stuff, but I got a long way to go before I start thinking about half-diminished minor mixolydian melodic dorian chromatic ionian scales – with or without the flatted 5th!
Sayinim means &#;8e02Help2r”. All jews are expected to be sayinims. We know all jews care about other jews and israel first and formost. Americans and the U.S. Constitution are way down on their list of priorities. Way below money or even a good parking space at the mall.
Please keep your political opinions to yourself, Dina. This is a blues music site..nothing more.
Very cool advice. I found diminished and half-diminished chords in a Brahms waltz I fell in love with. Very nice tension/transition chords.
Very cool Griff. I have some Robben Ford and Larry Carlton stuff that I’ve been planning to work on and I think I’m going to have a lot of fun with this.
Great lesson again. Saw Matt Schofield a year or so ago when he was in the UK. Just a small venue and he blew (Blue) me away.
so, it’s like sweets. I like sweets but I won’t eat a bagful. You’ve just given me a bad of sweets and I’ll grab a couple every now and then and put them in my solos, and I can’t wait. Cheers Griff.
Sounds. Arabian
Great stuff Mr. Griff. This is one of the reasons I love Greg Koch:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FiWjagEc3qY
Like combining the Dorian & the Mixolian scales so that you can play Minor blues over the V7 Cord! That comes from Jazz! There is only 2 wrong notes in a I IV V because they use a 10 note scale! That’s why you have to know the fretboard inside & out! You have to able to play a scale starting from the root position. Maybe a B minor scale, but starting on A. A minor scale starting on D or C# scale stating on E. You have to master the Fretboard Period!
I really love the sound of jazzy stuff added to blues, in fact it’s what I aspire to have as my style some day. Jazz itself though…I’ve been listening to a fair bit of it lately and especially with the jazz standards, you’re hearing a song like Lawrence Welk would play and then some guy is going WAY outside with his guitar solo and it sounds just plain ugly and completely tasteless. Even some of the big names in jazz – they’re 10 seconds into a syrupy sweet song and they’re just plain shredding over it; like they’re intentionally making a mockery of what was a beautiful melody. I don’t understand the appeal at all.
got to go to a Robben Ford clinic this summer and this is a big part his sound. good stuff man, blues with brains…
Interesting! I wouldn’t thought this had a place in the blues, but it works well in your demo! Thanks for the idea – I’m going to try it on some of the swing/jump blues numbers we play.
This reminds me of a Miles Davis story. He caught a new horn player in his band practicing back stage, and stopped him. Miles said something like, “I pay my musicians to practice on stage.”
The guy responded, “But what if I hit a wrong note?”
Miles came back with, “There are no wrong notes in jazz. If you think you played a wrong note, play it again, and then play it a third time so they know you meant.”